youth soccer participation down 23.5% in key 6-12 year age group...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US Youth Soccer has asked its State Association Presidents to provide feedback on the impacts that occurred when changes were made from a school year to calendar year, and what they’d foresee as impacts if we went back.

It will only cause more kids to quit — I don’t really have a Preference between the two, but the change itself was incredibly disruptive and shouldn’t happen to the same generation of kids again.

Agreed. The kids are on teams that have now been together for awhile and are just returning to play with COVID restrictions. Why disrupt that?

I disagreed with this change when it was made but if they want to go back, they should roll it in for younger groups. Like K-1 and just let it work it’s way through.

I agree as well. I have a DD who is amongst the youngest on her team and I really saw a maturity issue when she was U9/U10. Now that's she has been there for 4 plus years she is fitting in fine. There are a couple other younger grade girls on the team as well. I think if they do go back they could start with younger ages and just have it continue to go as those ages move upwards. At this point I can't imagine her moving down an age group. She's already on a competitive team and is starting so it wouldn't make sense for her or the other girls on her team who are younger.

I am in favor of changing it back though for younger kids. I anticipate the years where so is a freshman/sophmore and is playing with girls who are able to get recruited but she is too young to be an issue. Also since she is on an ECNL team when she is in 8th grade and everyone is playing HS in the spring she will have kind of a lost spring season. So I guess we will cross those bridges when we get there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US Youth Soccer has asked its State Association Presidents to provide feedback on the impacts that occurred when changes were made from a school year to calendar year, and what they’d foresee as impacts if we went back.

It will only cause more kids to quit — I don’t really have a Preference between the two, but the change itself was incredibly disruptive and shouldn’t happen to the same generation of kids again.

Agreed. The kids are on teams that have now been together for awhile and are just returning to play with COVID restrictions. Why disrupt that?

I disagreed with this change when it was made but if they want to go back, they should roll it in for younger groups. Like K-1 and just let it work it’s way through.

I agree as well. I have a DD who is amongst the youngest on her team and I really saw a maturity issue when she was U9/U10. Now that's she has been there for 4 plus years she is fitting in fine. There are a couple other younger grade girls on the team as well. I think if they do go back they could start with younger ages and just have it continue to go as those ages move upwards. At this point I can't imagine her moving down an age group. She's already on a competitive team and is starting so it wouldn't make sense for her or the other girls on her team who are younger.

I am in favor of changing it back though for younger kids. I anticipate the years where so is a freshman/sophmore and is playing with girls who are able to get recruited but she is too young to be an issue. Also since she is on an ECNL team when she is in 8th grade and everyone is playing HS in the spring she will have kind of a lost spring season. So I guess we will cross those bridges when we get there

The problem with rolling it in for younger kids is that you end up with one year where the oldest kids are as much as seventeen months older than the youngest. This is too large of an age range even for eleven eyar olds, let alone five year olds. I think you have to do it all at once or not at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US Youth Soccer has asked its State Association Presidents to provide feedback on the impacts that occurred when changes were made from a school year to calendar year, and what they’d foresee as impacts if we went back.

It will only cause more kids to quit — I don’t really have a Preference between the two, but the change itself was incredibly disruptive and shouldn’t happen to the same generation of kids again.

Kids are leaving soccer and not coming back.

I left when I was 14 and came back to it in IMs in college, and enjoyed that a lot more, but don't regret leaving when I was 14 - I wasn't big or fast or skilled enough as a late-bloomer to compete at the level that I wanted, and was destroyed by kids my age (some of who went on to play at UVA in its heyday, etc.) If kids don't come back, why does it matter? Like piano lessons or ballet. it's something you learn, and learn to appreciate later in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US Youth Soccer has asked its State Association Presidents to provide feedback on the impacts that occurred when changes were made from a school year to calendar year, and what they’d foresee as impacts if we went back.

It will only cause more kids to quit — I don’t really have a Preference between the two, but the change itself was incredibly disruptive and shouldn’t happen to the same generation of kids again.

Kids are leaving soccer and not coming back.

I left when I was 14 and came back to it in IMs in college, and enjoyed that a lot more, but don't regret leaving when I was 14 - I wasn't big or fast or skilled enough as a late-bloomer to compete at the level that I wanted, and was destroyed by kids my age (some of who went on to play at UVA in its heyday, etc.) If kids don't come back, why does it matter? Like piano lessons or ballet. it's something you learn, and learn to appreciate later in life.

I think that one of my kids who is also a late bloomer will have an experience similar to yours. However, as a governing body, US Youth Soccer should want to keep as many kids playing soccer as possible. From a health perspective, physical activity should be a regular lifelong habit. The system should not be set up to drive kids out because soccer isn't fun or because they are too late to puberty to compete. Maintaining soccer as a fun and desirable sport encourages the best athletes to choose it (benefiting the elite) and promotes fitness and physical activity for players of all levels.

[Anonymous]

What are the start and end time points for the statistic? Is this pre to post Covid? Sorry, did not see the article.

[Anonymous]

At last year's MSYSA annual meeting, they talked about soccer being down nationwide but not in Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the start and end time points for the statistic? Is this pre to post Covid? Sorry, did not see the article.

+1??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the start and end time points for the statistic? Is this pre to post Covid? Sorry, did not see the article.

+1??

Well the thread was started in December 2017 about a soccer America article (not sure why someone felt the need to resurrect the thread) These stat points are at least 4 or 5 years old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US Youth Soccer has asked its State Association Presidents to provide feedback on the impacts that occurred when changes were made from a school year to calendar year, and what they’d foresee as impacts if we went back.

It will only cause more kids to quit — I don’t really have a Preference between the two, but the change itself was incredibly disruptive and shouldn’t happen to the same generation of kids again.

Kids are leaving soccer and not coming back.

Not because of the age groups. Losing kids because other sports now drawing kids for year long commitment— like hockey, volleyball and lacrosse. Also, rec leagues have been destroyed by the growth of club and travel soccer. Lots of kids who played other sports use to participate in rec soccer but it’s become so uncompetitive, those kids just don’t play soccer at all because they don’t want the time and money commitment of Travel/club.

Instead of another disruptive and ultimately useless age change, us soccer should strengthen rec soccer at the u12 and under age groups.

[Anonymous]

My oldest two kids played travel soccer year round. Youngest is born in December and wanted to an after school activity with his friends. He didn't want to play with kids a grade older. So he never started soccer and now plays other sports. I see several younger siblings on my kids travel teams who decided not to play and/or families decided it just wasn't worth it to do travel with younger set of kids. After this pandemic ends I think soccer will lose even more kids both in rec and travel.

[Anonymous]

My kids play soccer and baseball. Baseball has done a much better job with making kids feel safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest two kids played travel soccer year round. Youngest is born in December and wanted to an after school activity with his friends. He didn't want to play with kids a grade older. So he never started soccer and now plays other sports. I see several younger siblings on my kids travel teams who decided not to play and/or families decided it just wasn't worth it to do travel with younger set of kids. After this pandemic ends I think soccer will lose even more kids both in rec and travel.

A kid with a December birthday has four months of kids the same grade as him on his team, usually more due to redshirting. My kid’s age group at his club is pretty evenly divided between 2 grades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the start and end time points for the statistic? Is this pre to post Covid? Sorry, did not see the article.

+1??

Well the thread was started in December 2017 about a soccer America article (not sure why someone felt the need to resurrect the thread) These stat points are at least 4 or 5 years old.

So, what are the stats now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest two kids played travel soccer year round. Youngest is born in December and wanted to an after school activity with his friends. He didn't want to play with kids a grade older. So he never started soccer and now plays other sports. I see several younger siblings on my kids travel teams who decided not to play and/or families decided it just wasn't worth it to do travel with younger set of kids. After this pandemic ends I think soccer will lose even more kids both in rec and travel.

A kid with a December birthday has four months of kids the same grade as him on his team, usually more due to redshirting. My kid’s age group at his club is pretty evenly divided between 2 grades

I have 2 kids with late birthdays who play. One is on a top team at the club and she's the only one in her grade on that team. My other is on the 3rd team for this particular club and the team is pretty split with half being in each grade. I think the more competitive teams have older players

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest two kids played travel soccer year round. Youngest is born in December and wanted to an after school activity with his friends. He didn't want to play with kids a grade older. So he never started soccer and now plays other sports. I see several younger siblings on my kids travel teams who decided not to play and/or families decided it just wasn't worth it to do travel with younger set of kids. After this pandemic ends I think soccer will lose even more kids both in rec and travel.

A kid with a December birthday has four months of kids the same grade as him on his team, usually more due to redshirting. My kid’s age group at his club is pretty evenly divided between 2 grades

I have 2 kids with late birthdays who play. One is on a top team at the club and she's the only one in her grade on that team. My other is on the 3rd team for this particular club and the team is pretty split with half being in each grade. I think the more competitive teams have older players

We lost one third of our team, and it is a top boys team at a competitive club. I think we will see more attrition if there is another shutdown.